


all i ever wanted was someone to rely on, somewhere to call home

by handschuhmaus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, fix-it of a bizarre sort, get that cheese to sickbay!, in which the Sith do not replicate the Jedi's errors but do make their own, not that anyone else is writing those that I know of, yet another Palpatine gets Anakin from Tatooine before TPM AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 07:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18823954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: title from "New Year's Resolution" by Camera Obscura





	all i ever wanted was someone to rely on, somewhere to call home

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Case Against the Jedi (video)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/481039) by Pop Culture Detective Agency. 



> title from "New Year's Resolution" by Camera Obscura

This was probably a wild goose chase. Surely. 

Ostensibly, Senator and former Ambassador Palpatine was on a goodwill tour of the Outer Rim while the Senate was in recess, in vague combination with a number of other Mid-Rim political figures, all of whom hoped it would pass as a vacation, if an unorganized one.

But, practically speaking, he was trying to track down a bizarrely defective ship part that was wanted by a ...friend of his (well. if that was the right word for his extremely complicated relationship with Hego Damask), reported on the holonet as being in the inventory of one of the junk shops around here. But not a holonet shop, oh no. No, just a vague post by some random holonet user about seeing it on this suns-baked wasteland of Tatooine. Anyone who knew both of them well, which was not a long list, really, would have thought it was Palpatine himself who wanted a _ship_ part, but no, this time it apparently had either biotech or biochemically active organometallic compounds (allegedly. Plagueis had been drunk and very tired at the time of the rant) in a part. 

And because they had both done the research on the background, he had been dispatched with non-Republic currency, not a credit chip. Hopefully A) the junk shops accepted Hutt space currency and B) this did not draw attention and or suspicions to himself.

This was the third junk shop of the day, run by a Toydarian who looked skeptically at Palpatine's concession to the local garb, which still marked him as an outworlder.

But before he could make Palpatine run through the description yet again, they were interrupted by the entry of a very small child, with suns-bleached blond hair and shabby clothes, from the back entrance of the shop, and probably from a yard beyond. The boy quietly said something brief to the proprietor in Huttese, causing Watto to exclaim and rush out the back. Then the child looked up at Palpatine. 

_Was_ this how he had felt to Plagueis, years ago? Well, in honestly, probably not. But there was a vital spark of the Force in this child, and he was having a far more vague premonition than he was accustomed to.

"Hello," he said gently, trying to make himself sound like an actually desirable uncle rather than any relative or would-be mentor he'd known. Though of course it would do no good if the child didn't understand Basic; Palpatine's Huttese was limited to a fistful of curses and rude invective, nothing that could win over a child or even really communicate with one.

"Hello," said the child. "What did you come looking for today?" he said, managing to sound very adult.

"Well," Palpatine allowed gentle amusement into his voice and knelt. "I'm supposed to be looking for a ship part. LNT242-T4CSC, from the Bethal Metalworks on Corellia?" He held out a picture, all the while doubting the child could actually help him.

The tiny face crinkled in thought, and managed, somehow, to tug at his heart. "Don't think you can find that here. There was a collector."

"Oh. What are you doing here in the shop?" Palpatine asked curiously.

"Work here. I'm Anakin."

"You... work here?" The Naboo only allowed children to work in politics and as acting extras, but surely Anakin was much too young to be working more in a shop than maybe a little nonhazardous tidying for pocket money as some people from other worlds nostalgically recalled.

Anakin confided, with all the solemnity his no more than five year old exuberance could manage, "Watto owns Mom."

"You're...slaves?" Palpatine asked, his stomach oddly plummeting. Old habits and indoctrinated morality die hard, he supposed, and for all his hard-won immunity to blood and violence, it was a little shocking to unexpectedly come across child slavery. Especially when the child was such a shining, eager thing.

Anakin nodded slowly. "Are you from off-world?" he asked.

"Oh yes. I am certainly not from such a hot and sandy place as this." He had little experience with children beyond Maul, but tried to draw on anything possibly relevant. 

"Is there... _rain_ , on your planet?" Anakin asked and somehow that was the last straw. No matter if Plagueis came up with inevitable objections; Palpatine was going to do his darnedest to get this child off this planet. It was a bizarre if endearing quirk from a Naboo point of view; if their senator was adopting anyone it ought to be a homegrown orphan, but he was here and had never felt a great connection to his homeworld anyway. 

"Yes, and lakes, and rivers," he sounded slightly nostalgic, perhaps only because it was such a great contrast to Tatooine, but Anakin was wrecked by this news, pouting and trying not to cry very loudly. And rightly so; even the mind of a five year old could work out that it was surely a grave injustice to be stuck here when there were places with glorious, plenteous, life-giving _water_.

Before he could work out how to comfort the child, he was accosted by Watto. "What are you doing?! Why is my slave boy crying?"

Palpatine did not deign to answer this, and instead, with an obvious and conspiratorial guile, said "I've changed my mind. I think I would like to purchase the boy." He had never participated in such a transaction before but it seemed best to avoid looking squeamish.

It seemed, logically, to baffle the Toydarian that Anakin's tears (squandering moisture here) dried at this announcement. He nevertheless objected. "I'm a decent person! How do I know you don't want to do unspeakable things to him? I can't sell a child to just anyone." Anakin giggled at that, in the way of spring showers and children's emotions, probably having no idea what Watto meant in this childish innocence. 

This posed a possible slight problem, Toydarians being immune to Force influence. At least he was in disguise anyway, seeing as Palpatine could not be recognized doing Damask's underhanded errands. "I too am a decent person," Palpatine appealed, trying to appeal to him by mundane means. "I'd simply like to train him up to do my little errands and chores around the house. You know, sort of like a son." 

Watto seemed satisfied surprisingly easily by this. Palpatine then named a price, roughly two-thirds of what he had, having no idea what the going price for slave children might be but nevertheless attempting to negotiate without overspending his limited supply of currency, which though generous for a rare ship part was, and acutely, potentially not enough for the slave trade. Apparently it was not an outrageously bad estimate, since Watto's expression remained receptive and not reactive as to an offer far too high or too low, but the problems were not over. The Toydarian did propose a higher amount, which Palpatine was actually slightly shy of. But he was fairly certain haggling was expected and that he could bargain Watto down to a quantity he had.

"What about Mom?" Anakin asked, party to the negotiations over himself. 

Watto's face puckered in thought, and then he named a price three times higher than what Palpatine had on him, and far more than he had hopes of raising, even if he could have made up a couple dozen credits' deficit pawning a thing or two. 

"I... can't afford that today." Palpatine admitted reluctantly, and immediately wondered at his reference to "today." What was he implying? Even if he wasn't theoretically opposed to getting the mother out of here as well, it probably was not an advantageous admission within the negotiation.

Watto asked casually, "Just the boy, then?"

"Yes." Palpatine proposed a number slightly larger than his original number, and they continued bargaining until they settled on an amount approximately 80% of what Damask had given him. But with luck he might be back for the mother; Damask had large coffers and underworld connections, and loathe though Palpatine himself might be to risk the potential scandal of changing some of his familial inheritance into Hutt currency, that remained a possibility as well. 

"Do you want to let him get whatever it is he has? Sometimes they cry if you take away their blankies or whatever at this age," Watto proposed, once the Hutt credits were behind his counter (if possibly not with his parts trade earnings). 

The Senator affected a bored tone "Yes, sure." Anakin was looking overwhelmed and almost confused, probably with the onslaught of emotions of possibly getting off-world but also losing his mother. A further benefit to getting the mother...he would not be obliged to do all the parenting of his acquisition. 

As the child led him, equal measures reluctant and longing, to his hovel, Palpatine said, conspiratorially. "I think we can come back for your mother soon. Would you like that?" 

Anakin only nodded.


End file.
